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| Laura Spaeth looks at a memorial honoring American hostage Kayla Mueller on the corner of courthouse plaza in Prescott, Ariz., Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. Islamic State group reported Friday that Muller, whose 18-month captivity had largely been kept secret in an effort to save her, had died in a recent Jordanian airstrike targeting the militants. On Tuesday her parents and U.S. officials confirmed she was dead, although officials said they could not confirm how she died. |
PRESCOTT, Ariz.
(AP) -- The small Arizona town where Kayla Jean Mueller grew up
gathered in grief Tuesday upon learning that the 26-year-old aid worker
who traveled the world on a quest to help others had died while in the
hands of Islamic State militants.
A memorial
of flowers and handwritten notes took shape on the courthouse plaza in
Prescott near a sign calling on people to pray for her.
In Washington, President Barack Obama pledged to bring Mueller's captors to justice "no matter how long it takes."
Muller's
18-month captivity had largely been kept secret in an effort to save
her. The Islamic State group claimed Friday that she had died in a
recent Jordanian airstrike targeting the militants.
On
Tuesday, her parents and U.S. officials confirmed her death. The
Pentagon said U.S. officials don't know how or when she died but are
certain it was not in the Jordanian airstrike.
"What
a fine, fine woman and a tribute to Prescott," said 15-year resident
Tina Nemeth. "It's just so sad, it really is, and everyone feels exactly
the same. It's a shock it hit Prescott. We're not that big of a town."
The
former territorial capital of Arizona has only recently begun to
recover from a devastating 2013 wildfire that claimed the lives of 19
members of an elite firefighting squad. Stickers featuring the fire
crew's logo and bearing the number "19" are still fixed to vehicles all
around town.
The mountain town of 40,000
people resembles a relic of the Old West in many ways, with its colorful
downtown saloons and a dirt road leading out of town to where Mueller's
family lives. Its picturesque downtown courthouse lawn is recognizable
to outsiders who still recall it as the site of the dramatic
martial-arts fight scene in the 1971 film "Billy Jack."
On
Tuesday, that lawn was crammed with members of the media gathered to
hear an emotional, often tearful tribute from Mueller's family and
friends.
"All these stories about Kayla, she
sounds so extraordinary," said the Rev. Kathleen Day, who heads the
United Christian Ministry at Northern Arizona University, where Mueller
attended college.
"What was so extraordinary
about Kayla was she did ordinary things to extraordinary measures," Day
continued. "She gave people food. She gave people water." She even
befriended her captors, the reverend added, at one point trying to teach
them origami.
And she wrote passionately about conditions in war-torn Syria, where she had gone to help refugees.
"Every human being should act. They should stop this violence," Day said, quoting one of Mueller's blog posts.
Her
aunt Lori Lyon said Mueller accomplished more in her 26 years than most
people do in a lifetime, adding that her death had "touched the heart
of the world."
From Jordan, government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani offered his country's condolences.
The
White House said Obama had spoken with Mueller's parents and offered
his prayers. The president said Mueller "epitomized all that is good in
our world."
Arizona Sen. John McCain hailed Mueller's humanitarian work in a speech from the Senate floor.
"After
graduating from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff in 2009, Kayla
committed her life to helping people in need around the world - first
in India, then Israel and the Palestinian territories and back home in
Prescott, where she volunteered at an HIV/AIDS clinic and a women's
shelter," he said.
As a high school student in
Prescott, McCain noted, Mueller was recognized as a leader and received
the President's Award for Academic Excellence, as well as other honors.
Mueller
is the fourth American to die while being held by Islamic State
militants. Three others - journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and
aid worker Peter Kassig - were beheaded by the group.
Journalist
Austin Tice disappeared in August 2012 while covering Syria's civil
war. It's not clear what entity is holding him, but it is not believed
to be the Islamic State group or the Syrian government, his family has
said.
Mueller was taken hostage in August 2013 while leaving a hospital in Syria.
In
each case, their captors demanded huge ransoms, which the United States
has refused to pay, saying doing so would only encourage more
kidnappings. Obama defended that policy Tuesday in an interview with
BuzzFeed News, although he said explaining it to victims' families is
"as tough as anything I do."
He also said a
military operation last summer to recover Mueller and others failed when
rescuers arrived only "a day or two" after the group had been moved.
Islamic
State said last week that Mueller was killed in a recent airstrike
Jordan launched as retaliation for the militant group's gruesome killing
of one of its pilots, who was burned to death.
Jordan
denied that, and on Tuesday a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Rear Adm. John
Kirby, said there was "no doubt" Islamic State killed Mueller. He said
officials have not learned yet how she died.
Her
parents released a letter that their daughter had written them while in
captivity. In the undated letter, Mueller said she was "in a safe
location, completely unharmed."
"I am also
fighting from my side in the ways I am able + I have a lot of fight left
inside of me," she wrote. "I am not breaking down + I will not give in
no matter how long it takes."
